Windows Vista Filetype Association

VOB files on my computer are currently associated with HP's QuickPlay program. Does anyone know a way to disasssociate filetypes from specific programs (without simply associating them with another program); in other words, to make Windows treat them as unrecognized filetypes?

 

Hi zfreeland. Welcome to the board.

To remove the association, open any folder or Windows Explorer window. Click tools>folder options>file types. Look in the extensions column and scroll down to VOB. Click it once to highlight it, then click the delete button.

 

Are you talking about Vista? I know this works in XP, but in Vista, the tabs in Folder Options are General, View, and Search--no File Types. Unless I am missing something...

 

zfreeland,
There is a recent thread on a similar issue down the page a little called Set Association?

 

Yeah, sorry. Didn't realize I was in the Vista forum. Sorry. I'm running XP right now but I'll have a look at Vista a bit later. How about the control panel? XP has a link to it in it's control panel, perhaps Vista does too. Otherwise, hang on. I'll take a look at mine or perhaps somebody else will come up with the answer before then.

 

Well, I've searched high and low for the answer to this and the answer is always the same. Other than a registry edit, there is no way to do this in Vista. Also, there's no way to change the default action for a file type. Such as, changing the default action for .reg files from open to edit. It's beyond me why they'd remove these functions from the OS. Not a good deal in my opinion.

That said, I found this program that you can use for this type of thing. It's not free ($18.00 US) but it does have a free trial period. I don't know if the trial is crippled in any way or not. It might be worth taking a look at anyway. If you don't like that, you may be able to find something free that does the same thing. It kind of looks like it's either something like this or a registry edit.

http://www.creativelement.com/powertools/#download

 

Open the Control panel and click "default programs - it's all in there.